WORLD
Most dangerous cities in 2012
Baku, February 8 (AZERTAC). Once again a Mexican NGO has published what it considers to be the most dangerous cities in the world. The top five: San Pedro Sula, Acapulco, Caracas, Tegucigalpa and Torreon.
The list, based on homicides proportional to population, contains a lot of cities in Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia and the US. Nearly the entire list is in the Western Hemisphere. Two large cities in Honduras over 100 murders per 100,000 is a shockingly high level of violence.
There are a few criticisms or qualifiers this list should contain. First, I'm absolutely certain that Aleppo, Syria was one of the most dangerous cities in the world this year, but because the deaths came via civil war and not criminal homicide, it's not on here. Same is true for parts of Ivory Coast and the Congo. Also, there are cities in south Asia, specifically western Pakistan, where homicide levels are likely high enough to be on this list but where statistics are not well maintained. Part of the arbitrary nature of the list means it is based on the city boundaries. For example, there are certainly neighborhoods of Chicago that would break the top 20 of this list, but Chicago is big enough that it doesn't make the top 50. Finally, as the study notes, the Venezuelan government has purposefully blocked some crime statistics, meaning violence may be underreported.